How to Adapt a Script Into a Novel - Part 2

Jumping back into the two-parter about not only how to approach adapting your script into a book, but also why. What is the why? As a little recap - this industry is HARD…when you don’t have a built-in audience. A book - your own IP (intellectual property) can help you create a fan base and therefor help you get noticed.

Isn’t getting noticed what all of us starving, terribly self-conscious writers want?

In my last post, I talked through my thought process as I was adapting my fantasy feature screenplay into my YA novel, The WishKeeper. I talked through that process, obviously, as an example, but I want to point out that it isn’t because my book is a perfect example of how to adapt a script into a novel. I used as an example because I needed to remind you that it’s not just as simple as basic formatting that makes a script a book.

Yes, I took the script pages out of Final Draft and just cut and pasted them into a Word document as my first novel draft, but that was just to get my brain rewired so it got used to working without a screenplay format. Those first steps I took in formulating the screenplay into the novel version were rather simple.

I looked at the Word document, after I pasted the script copy into it, and added page breaks after every single scene…even if a scene was a half a page or less. I broke up every single scene so that they initially had their own chapters in Word. That’s what the page breaks technically created – chapters. When I titled each scene per the theme and point of the scene itself, suddenly I noticed that I already had ready-made chapters. It’s a monster of a project to write a novel, and it can be incredibly intimidating, but when I broke it down into basics per what already existed, I felt that I was at least off to a solid start (in spite of knowing I had a ton of work to do). I had about 50 or so pages of the novel. At least from tricking my brain, it worked.

Creating the page breaks was the simplest way for me to make the process less intimidating. I was able to go from chapter to chapter and expand on the action lines I already had and A) change the present tense to past tense, but B) and more importantly of course, add commentary and feeling and emotion through the prose. My first draft was basically just expanding on the action lines I had from my script and not worrying about formatting. It wasn’t very good, of course, that first draft, but by the time the first draft was done, it was so gratifying to suddenly see about 150 pages or so of an actual book (this being after I added prose, expanded on the description, etc).

As I was going from chapter to chapter, or basically, page break to page break, I was making notes, and brainstorming ways to make the story darker. That was when I noticed that I needed a character like Avery (one of the second leads in the book) to connect everyone and make the story that much more difficult and dramatic on a thematic level.
 
And I will say that naming the chapters before I expanded them into longer prose really helped me keep the sequence writing aspect of the process intact. I was basically naming the chapters as a reference to the theme of that particular chapter and sequence. It was a constant reminder of,

“Oh right, I need to make sure that this is the point and purpose of this chapter, and since it’s occurring roughly around Sequence 5 in the overall structure of the story, then we’re still kind of in the fun and games portion of the story, but the Opponent needs to start rearing his ugly head.”

That was my very basic initial approach of turning a script into a book. Granted, I already had the script written, but I am assuming most of you out there already have at least one or two scripts done, so this process shouldn’t sound too daunting at first. But I do need to remind you that I didn’t simply cut and paste and then go “here...here’s my book”. I spent two years breaking down this story. It took me a couple of months to get that first very basic draft of the manuscript written. The rest of the time was focusing on character and how character drives the plot. Every decision I made, and every approach to a rewrite that I made, was completely based on how the changes and updates affected Shea, my main character. She became like a best friend to me after a while. It all became real, because I spent so much time developing what was behind the actions of the characters. In other words, every action the characters took needed to be rooted in an emotional reason for that action, and that emotional reason needed to be deeply connected to the flaw and motive of that particular character. Writing a novel allows you to dig into the soul of those characters so much more than a screenplay does.

Here is the crux of all of this, however…

Even if you don’t have any intention to ever write a book and you want to only focus on writing screenplays (which is totally fine), you still need to do that emotional brainstorming work with those characters. That is so essential to point out. I learned the backwards way. I learned that my characters were not nearly as well developed as they should have been. One of the main reasons the script was skewing too young was because I hadn’t done the work on the characters and the WHY they were doing what they were doing. I hadn’t delivered that on the script page because I didn’t really know why they were doing what they were doing. It was still rather surface level stuff in the script version of The WishKeeper. And you tend to see that in film adaptations. You tend to see that movie versions of books are way too light on character development because screenwriters all too often focus on the plot and the conceptual hook of the project instead of doing the work on the characters and driving your script toward a character-driven adventure.

Writing my book allowed me to see how much more work I really needed to do, but it also turned me into a much stronger writer – both a novelist and a screenwriter – because I found out the hard way that I hadn’t really been focusing on what was important. My Hero. And I’m pretty sure Shea is quite smug right now as she hears me say that. She thinks she’s pretty damn important, but she’s right. Even though I won’t tell that to her face.

What I’m experiencing now, after having adapted the script into a book, is that I have a fan base. They’re incredibly patient, seeing as though I have yet to release the second book (it’s been a bear to try to finish it). But I’ve also developed the Series for the book, which is now repped by an agency which has allowed me to pitch to dozens of major companies and studios in the last two years. I’m still up against having too small of a fan base, but I’m consistently reminded that I can continue to build on that fan base…which I try to do on a daily basis.

I know there was a lot of information split between two posts, but I want you to feel free to reach out through social media and ask me questions if you feel the urge. Or please comment here on Substack! You can send me a direct message, too, if you’d like. I would be happy to answer questions if you have any, because this is such an important element of the writing industry. I wrote my book because I knew I had a story to tell, but even more so, I knew I needed to create a fan base. I needed to create buzz. And by writing the book, I felt like I had a little more control over creating that buzz. I’m still working on it. My fan base is growing, but I’m still nowhere near the phenomenon of a Rowling or Marissa Meyer, or the Rick Riordans of the world. Still lots more work to do, but that’s part of the fun. The work. It’s worth it.

Please remember that the only way to truly succeed in this business is to put in the time. Put in the hours. Devote yourself to this process of education, and don’t be afraid to write other things beyond just a screenplay.

The fact that you’re reading right now is proof that you’re on your way to that devotion to education, but you have to keep at it daily. Promise yourself that you’ll try to be at least just a little bit better than you were yesterday; to build on something just a little more than you did yesterday. You don’t need to make giant leaps of improvement or advancement all at once. It is in the little increments of improvement that create a successful life and a successful career. So keep at it. Like I’ve said, it’s worth it, but as we move through this wild entertainment industry today, it’s even more necessary than it ever has been.

Subscribe to The Story Farm